Biden announces national monument for 1908 Springfield Race Riot

By Asia AlexanderHoward University News ServiceWASHINGTON, D.C. — To commemorate a dark chapter in American history, President Joe Biden recently signed a proclamation in the Oval Office marking the 116th anniversary of the Springfield Race Riot and approving a new national monument.The Springfield Race Riot was a brutal assault by a white mob on the Black community of Springfield, Illinois, resulting in the town being burned down and lives lost in 1908. The monument commemorates this violence and highlights the pervasive racism, intimidation and brutality faced by Black Americans nationwide.Before signing the proclamation President Biden made remarks about the attempt to erase Black History. Biden said he never thought he would “have to worry about people wanting to erase history — to literally erase history: what we can’t read, what we can’t write.”& “We’re allowing history to be written — what happened — so our children, our grandchildren, everybody understands what happened and what could still happen,” he added. In August of 1908, Joe James, 17, and George Richardson, 36, were jailed in Springfield on accusations of rape. On Aug. 14, a mob of 5,000 young White men gathered demanding their release for lynching. The sheriff and a White business...